The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-30
TEA AND COFFEE.
1885, De- zL.LEL(I0U
Facts for Lovers of the Leaf
and Berry.
THEIR RELATIVE CONSUMPTION
India as Rival to china In the Pro.
ductiOn OF Tea-Tho First Cof-
fee House In London.

There is always something interesting
in facts and figures about tea, that use
full sister of the proud and ornamental
camelia- plant, that luxury Of the rich
est and solace of the poorest. The com
missioners of customs have just giver
US batch of them, showing that, IN the
long rivalry between tea and coffee, the
4 former is winning the race of popularity
and becoming year by year more widely
consumed and more financially import
ant to the Chancellor of the Exchequel
| and to commerce. For some reason
not easy to determine, the fragrant
"berry of Mocha" is gradually but
evidently declining in favor. The gross
amount collected on coffee for the last
ten years has been mainly moving in q
downward direction. The bulk con-
sumption for the year ending December
81, 1875, was 81, 286 ,016 pounds, showing
q demand per head of the population OF
961 pounds. The gross consumption
for the year down to December last was
81 sos 304 pounds, showing a sale per
head of the population of 1861 pounds, q
decrease per head of 100 pounds, or at
the rate of 1914 per cent.
While the receipts from coffee, how
ever, prove substantial diminution,
those from chicory fairly keep pace
with the increase of population, sinis
| ter piece of statistics which goes to
n OF n1nS frof hot Ay1IH4
have much to do with the apparent de-
cline of coffee Why, indeed, should
the wholesome and aromatic infusion
which, properly made, is so restorative
and digestive, become less in vogue if 1t
be not either that the mass of the peo-
pie fail to get good coffee, or are not sup
piled with it brewed in the proper man
ner? Probably both causes are at work
against the berry which the Prophet
would wisely have blessed and recon-
mended in the Koran if he had lived to
taste it. Coffee receives very scant JUS
tice from western cooks. In the east
they would be scandalized to think of
persons so ignorant as not only to waste
but actually to grind it weeks and
months before using. The delicious
favor of the finjan in Turkey, or Egypt,
or Syria is due to the simple fact that
the aromatic oils of the kernel are
brought out by heat at the moment of
consumption, and that the oafedji
scorns to mlngle the vulgar imitation OF
chicory, or the viler produce of burnt
beans, with that cup which the Arab
fondly calls 1.-THE Bride of the Pipe"
THE CHIEF VIRTUE OF COFFEE
the way in which it preserves in
definitely the subtle odors and f1avors
gathered in the tropical sunshine, but
once pulverized quickly parts with
them-is against its use. The publ
must have something extremely con-
venient in respect of its meats, drinks,
lighting and everything else. Eggs are
so universally employed because thew
are the very epigrams of food, condens-
ing nOurishment in the most portable
and available form. Gas, which ought
to have been abolished long ago in favor
of the electric lamp, holds its own be-
cause ofits fatally obvious hardness as
an illuminant. So tea outdoes coffee in
popularity, because it yields its best re-
suit with so little trouble or preceution:
for, if the leaf is good at first, it is only
necessary to keep it well closed from
the air to have as good q bowl as the
empress of China could desire. The
pale green berry, however, ought to be
roasted and broken and ground every
time a seal cup of coffee is required
which rule is seldom or ever observed.
The consequence is the administration
of poor decoctions which might make
Mr.. Nathaniel Campus, the Cretan, who
first brewed the true beverage at Balliol
College, Oxford, rise from his grave to
protest.
Strange, indeed it is to reflect that the
west has only known coffee since 1910
A. D.; and the earliest coffee house in
London was opened by Edwards, the
Turkey merchant, at Georgeyard, Lom-
bad Street, in 1852 A. D. Now far and
wide, in climates fit for it, grows the
beautiful coffee bush, with its creamy
flowers and scarlet Cherries" and
glossy dark green leaves; since even
here pound per head of the population
implies considerable cultivation, and,
abroad, wherever the narghileh, the
hookah, the cigar, cigarette, or pipe |
"weave their light blue tangies in the |
sum-" there coffee is the Indispensable |
companion of the weed
Tea, meanwhile, Notwithstanding oc-
casiolal
PROTESTS FROM DOCTORS AND DEANS
against its alleged-nerve-exciting quail
ties, grows steadfsstly in use among US.
The commissioners of customs informs
US that taking the same years for COM
parison, in 1875 the bulk consumption
amounted to Isl, 274 1926 pounds, equal
10 demand OF 4.52 pound per head of
The population; while in 1886 the bulk
amounted to 178, 1909 1871
pounds, equal to a sale of 4.87 pounds
per head of the population, an increase
Of O.35 pound, or at the rate of IL per
cent. Here, again, is a most marvellous
of an experiment in com
nerce, fox in 1869 the East India Com
oany quite timidly instructed its agent
1t Calcutta "to buy for 10 shillings the
BEST tsy you can gett," and old Pepys
.ecords how he drank his first CUP of it
With all the complacent self-glorifca-
ion which that prime val gourmet must
AVE exhibited who swallowed the first !
OYSTER.
Tea is tremendously historical. II